Little bro got sick and didn't make it up, bummer. Overall, great time with some good friends. Pizza factory was kinda a pain in the ___ cuz of some crazy kids running around, and they take forever, but the pizza was my savior, as was the hostel shower... Done.

Did this hike 3 times in the 90's all up the Portal trail, although one time the 98 switchbacks were covered with snow so we had to go straight up. Would like to try the Mountaineers Route some day and also climb Muir.

I have done the tourist route twice (Also, July 25, 2008) as day hikes. It was fun the first time, but I was kind of bored with it the second time around since the views had been burned into my head from the year before. It is respectable mountain for its height. Although I may try another route someday to the top there is just too much of the Eastern Sierra that I would rather spend time climbing.

East Face (III 5.7) -- August 28, 2008 -- Jeff Bance and I climbed this classic route from a camp at Iceberg Lake. The climbing took us 4.5 hours with a fair bit of simul-climbing. Routefinding was straightforward with the SuperTopo. We enjoyed a few minutes on the summit, but were quickly recruited for a rescue of some hikers off-route on 5th class terrain from the Mountaineer's Route. It took about 2 hours to extract the stranded hiker from a ledge about 200 ft below the summit. The ranger was appreciative and his berating of the knuckleheads after the fact was good entertainment.

East Buttress (III 5.7) -- August 13, 2009 -- Went back with Mary to do this route. We took it slow and easy, camping at Lower Boy Scout Lake and then at Iceberg Lake before climbing the route. We had excellent weather the whole time and the climbing on the route was excellent. We met some interesting characters on the summit and saw a knucklehead off-route on the descent, giving me flashbacks to the year before. Took us 5 hours to climb the route and 2 hours to descend back to Iceberg Lake.

Climbed Mount Whitney via the tourist route in one day with Daniel Malinow. While presenting no technical difficulty this route will ruin your knees as all that granite dishes out quite a pounding. 35 degrees F on the summit with 30 mph winds.

I can't believe I've never signed this log. I took the trail route both times, with a detour to Muir.

This certainly isn't my proudest adventure, but I did enjoy the trips, and had many positive interactions along the way.... plus I enjoyed the chance to participate in a "rescue". Hats off to my friends, who did all the lottery stuff. Matt and I ran much of the way down. Wonderful scenery. Perhaps the best value of the experience is to make one realize the price of making things "easy".

7-day hike, summitted Whitney from Guitar Lake on Day 4 at 8:30 am with mostly sunny conditions. This was my first time in the Sierras. The point was to go backpacking; summitting Whitney was a bonus I'd not previously considered trying before picking this route, since the crowdedness of the dayhike trail seemed a turnoff. Loved Kearsarge and the JMT, especially the Forester Pass part, thought Guitar Lake was too crowded but gorgeous, and thought the PCT south of Crabtree was anticlimactic but our campsites were pretty nice.